Page 1852 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2022

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However, the way our wood is regulated, it is difficult to know whether it meets our high environmental standards. It is in our legislation that sellers have to state the species of wood and where they find it. But, in practice, a fair amount of the wood burnt in our suburbs comes from logging in New South Wales native forests. Our demand in the ACT keeps this industry going. This industry is so damaging to biodiversity, and we should make sure we are responsible when we do source wood.

A recent CSIRO survey found that, in order to reduce the cost of maintaining wood heaters, some owners burn rubbish wood and recycled wood, which often contains oils, paints and other chemicals which can prove hazardous to air quality. In theory, sure, there are woods out there to purchase that are more sustainable. But the reality is that, in practice, we are not operating sustainably, and we have to take that into account when we discuss the sustainability of wood heaters here in the ACT.

The maintenance costs of wood heaters also fail to take into account the real cost—the cost on government and the cost on the whole community; that is, an increase in medical bills for respiratory care from increased exposure to PM2.5 emissions. In Armidale, a 2007 study in the Environmental Health journal found that a massive 38 per cent of respiratory-related visits to the GP could be tracked back to a household wood heater. Per day, that cost that small town of Armidale roughly $1,666 in health care. Even more troubling, wood heaters were found to increase the annual morbidity in Armidale by seven per cent. All of this says that the mandate to act on wood heaters is real.

There are other jurisdictions working hard to support their communities to phase out wood heaters. Through a combination of legislation to stop the installation of new wood heaters and a buyback scheme, Launceston has managed to encourage three-quarters of wood heater owners to switch to more sustainable alternatives. Some councils in Sydney, including Waverley and Holroyd, to name a couple, have banned the installation of wood heaters, and others—Manooka Valley, Oran Park and Turner Road councils—mandate non-polluting heating in new developments.

At the end of the day, I understand that there will still be people out there who enjoy their wood heater for aesthetics. Let me assure you, Mr Assistant Speaker, that of all the issues I have spoken about passionately in my short time here, nothing has troubled my born-and-raised country-boy father quite like my passion to do away with wood heaters. I understand that it divides opinion.

While I hope that these people will look after their own health and the health of their community by sourcing wood responsibly, my motion today is very specifically targeted towards those people who want to make a change, who want to make a transition, who do not want to continue to rely on the old wood heater in their home, and who want to move to a sustainable and cleaner option. They want to ensure the health of them, their children, their families and their community, but they just do not have the upfront capital. They just do not have thousands of dollars in the bank in order to go out and buy a split system, have it fitted and wait six to eight weeks for the bureaucracy to do its part and return to them a fraction of the cost. It is just getting in the way.


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